In a few weeks, the blockbuster season will be in full swing and multiplexes will be swarmed with superhero actioners, zombie thrillers, sci-fi epics, sequels and comedies starring Adam Sandler.

But before the popcorn pictures arrive, there’s time to check out “Disconnect,” a thought-provoking indie that tackles heavy-duty themes like the ramifications of technology, the dangers of religious extremism and the need for human beings to connect.

Not unlike “Traffic” or “Crash,” “Disconnect” weaves together a number of interconnected stories which explore a single theme. Where “Traffic” probed addiction and “Crash” pivoted on issues of race, “Disconnect” is, in Rubin’s words, a look at “how we communicate with each other.”

One story strand follows a TV reporter (Andrea Riseborough) who wants to expose porn sites that exploit homeless kids. In the course of her investigation, she befriends a teenager (Max Thieriot) whom she convinces to participate in an on-air interview.

Advertisement

The second tale involves Riseborough’s lawyer (Jason Bateman) who is shocked when his 15-year-old son (Jonah Bobo) attempts suicide after being bullied online.

The third saga follows a married couple (“True Blood’s” Alexander Skarsgård, Paula Patton) who are victims of identity fraud. Desperate to put their lives back together again, they hire a private investigator (Frank Grillo) who turns out to be the father of one of the cyber-bullies who menaced Bateman’s son.

Scripter Andrew Stern says he was inspired to write “Disconnect” after having dinner with a friend and noticing that almost everyone in the restaurant had their phones out and were e-mailing and texting.

“The people were present and strangely not present with one another,” Stern says. “I decided I wanted to write a multi-story film about how technology is connecting us in one way, but also disconnecting us at the same time.”

While a quick synopsis of the movie might make it sound anti-technology, director Henry-Alex Rubin says he’s as much of an electronics geek as many of the characters in the film.

“I’m completely non-stop on my phone,” he says. “The film is not anti-technology. I love technology. But I hope it instigates a conversation about what happens when you’re too much on your phone and you don’t pay attention to the people you love around you.”

Oscar-nominated for his documentary “Murderball,” Rubin wanted his fictional debut to have a naturalistic vibe. For every sequence, he had two cameras rolling so the actors could move around and not worry about hitting their marks.

Often times, Rubin used a long lens and zoomed into the action from across the room. He did away with overhead boom mikes, preferring to attach a tiny, hidden microphone to each actor.

“I wanted the movie to have an eavesdropped naturalism,” says the filmmaker. “I wanted it to feel like we were looking at real people.”

Before the production began, Rubin went out and found cyber detectives, journalists, lawyers and porn performers who corresponded to the characters in the film. He interviewed these folks for weeks in hopes of making the screenplay richer and more detailed.

“I also made these real-life people available to the actors and some of the actors spent two or three days with their counterparts,” says Rubin.

One of the actors who particularly impressed Rubin was Bateman, who is best known for roles in comedies like “Horrible Bosses,” “Identity Thief” and TV’s “Arrested Development.”

“I was going out on a limb casting Jason because you never know if a comic actor is going to be accepted in a dramatic role, but he blew me away every day,” says Rubin. “He was a coiled spring. He’d just never been given the chance to do a dramatic role before.”

For his part, Bateman says the role fit him like a glove. “When I read the script I kept thinking of real people and real situations. Because I’m always on my iPhone or my computer or my iPad, it made the story feel relevant and personal to me.”